There aren't many people around who can say they went from Everton FC academy hopeful to property developer at the top of a £1bn development pile.
But that's a boast Liverpool-born Elliot Lawless can make.
Now at the helm of Elliot Group, the 32-year-old is behind the 'triple towers' Infinity project on Leeds Street, as well as various others around the city and further afield.
Elliot’s journey began when he was growing up on the terraced streets of Aigburth.
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He soon won a trial with his boyhood football club Everton, and stayed there for two years at the Toffees' renowned academy.
But at the age of 15, he was told he wasn’t good enough to play for , and he would not make it - a moment he described as a turning point.
He said: “You either crumble or you pick yourself up, dust yourself down and crack on. I cracked on.”
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Elliot said he turned down a youth training scheme at Crewe Alexandra FC to become an apprentice plumber at Liverpool building services company HE Simm.
He thanked his parents for sending him to Liverpool College, but said academia was not for him.
So because he “preferred to get his hands dirty”, he opted for an apprenticeship at HE Simm and said “never looked back”.
He said: “In simple terms, we designed the pipes and wires that run through buildings and make them work and I found my niche.
“The company is a great employer and put me through an Ordinary National Certificate then my Higher National Certificate.”
Elliot said during his apprenticeship, he “paid attention, asked questions outside his remit and stuck his nose into areas of the business that only the terminally curious would do”.
He then made his first leap into business with a colleague to establish his own building services consultancy in 2010. Elliot said that the two years running his consultancy was like an apprenticeship in how property development works.
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He said: “It was fun and I learned a lot about running companies and all the aggro that goes with that. But in 2012 I saw a chance to move into development and grabbed it with both hands.”
According to Elliot, at a time when no-one was buying land or property – least of all in Liverpool docklands – he acquired some sites being sold “for buttons” by banks in the .
Elliot said he “sensed the momentum” of the area’s internet firms, games designers and architects, soon selling out his first Elliot Group scheme, called Artesian on Jamaica Street, within three months to overseas investors.
Elliot said from that first completed scheme in 2013, he has since amassed a development pipeline of more than a billion pounds. As well as the Liverpool projects that include the Infinity project, , and the near Lime Street station, he said there’s “more to come”.
He said: “It’s about working with people who have the skills and experience you lack.
The view from the top of Liverpool's tallest crane:
“The best entrepreneurs surround themselves with people who are better than them in every sphere and so I have the best project managers, engineers, architects and more on tap.
“We debate and argue the toss continuously, but it drives us towards the highest levels of performance. With this many plates spinning, that’s vital.”
Elliot said Liverpool is his “passion”, adding: “It’s a pleasure to be able to develop high quality schemes here and I want to do more.
“Almost my entire supply chain is from Liverpool and I’m intensely proud of that. Every development we do delivers jobs for local trades and keeps more of our investment in the city.”
A measure of his success, he said, is down to the city’s business-friendly agenda.
“Liverpool wants jobs and regeneration and the council is proactive in encouraging investment, which is great. The planners demand quality and put my design team on their mettle and that’s good too as everyone benefits from better architecture and place-making.”